Haiti faces ‘enormous human crisis,’ President Biden says in United Nations speech

In a rare moment reflecting the seriousness of Haiti’s descent into chaos, President Joe Biden used his speech at the United Nations on Wednesday to call on the international community to do more to assist the Caribbean nation as it faces its worst crisis in decades.

“We continue to stand with our neighbor in Haiti as it faces political-fueled gang violence, and an enormous human crisis, and we call on the world to do the same,” Biden said. “We have more to do.”

Biden’s comment came at the same time that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, also attending the U.N. General Assembly, convened various officials on the U.N. Economic and Social Council’s Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti in hopes of instilling a sense of urgency regarding the crisis-wrecked country and to discuss how the international community can help. The group is made up of countries from Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the United States and France. Haiti was represented by Foreign Minister Jean Victor Généus and Finance Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert.

The newspaper Le Devoir reported that Trudeau, upon entering the meeting, told reporters: “We have a lot of work to do to help Haiti restore stability and prosperity, to protect citizens, and to restore confidence and direction to the pearl of the Antilles.”

Trudeau later announced a contribution of $20 million Canadian to help Haiti. The assistance is in addition to support for reconstruction work following the 2021 earthquake in the south of the country, including nearly $70 million announced earlier this year to strengthen the security sector.

As Haiti plunged into anarchy last week after an announced fuel-price increase, foreign diplomats in Port-au-Prince, Washington and elsewhere seemed to be at a loss. In a meeting at the Organization of American States, Dominican President Luis Abinader, whose call for the return of United Nations peacekeepers to Haiti has so far been ignored, became the first to speak out, publicly demanding bold action from regional leaders.

“The current situation could be defined as a low-intensity civil war,” Abinader said.

After Abinader’s speech, officials confirmed that Trudeau planned to address the issue of Haiti during the General Assembly as part of a continued effort to coordinate donor efforts in the country and see how they can help break an ongoing political impasse.

In addition to Wednesday’s meeting, Canada and the United States on Friday will co-host a high-level donor event to raise money for Haiti’s ill-equipped and beleaguered 12,000-plus national police, which both nations insist is the solution to the country’s raging insecurity and gang problems.

“We’re escalating our leadership and this is a signal that we take the situation very seriously and we’re following it very closely and that the international community needs to get together and support Haiti,” said Sébastien Carrière, Canada’s ambassador in Port-au-Prince.

A year after the still unsolved assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Haiti still doesn’t have a timetable for new general elections or an accord between its warring political factions that could help get it there. Recent protests, ignited after the government announced an increase in the price of fuel at the pump to end $400 million in fuel subsidies, have brought the country to a violent standstill.

Some protesters, while decrying the higher cost of living and demanding the resignation of interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, have looted charity and government warehouses, erected burning barricades to block roads and attacked banks, foreign embassies and the homes of government supporters and members of the private sector.

In a preliminary report, the Haiti Ministry of Education confirmed Wednesday that in just one regional department, the Artibonite, 28 schools have been attacked and food warehouses looted. Another seven schools were also attacked in the northwest region and elsewhere.

Even hospitals were not spared in the violence, which saw a respite Tuesday as Hurricane Fiona brushed by the country but battered the neighboring Dominican Republic.

In opening the General Assembly on Monday, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres spoke of the teeming turmoil around the world. He mentioned Haiti among 10 countries where “upheaval abounds.”

“In Haiti,” Guterres said, “gangs are destroying the very building blocks of society.”

His comments highlighting Haiti joined those of Abinader who also spoke privately about Haiti with Biden administration officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris. Abinader also addressed Haiti with Trudeau ahead of the U.N. gathering this week.

Carrière said Wednesday’s meeting will be highly focused on the security situation in Haiti, which Canada has made a top priority as gangs extend and tighten their grip. He knows that one meeting will not solve the problem, but if the international community can focus on supporting the Haiti National Police to reestablish security, it’s a first step, he said.

“What’s going on out there — the looting, the violence — is terrible and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” Carrière said. “People have the right to peaceful protest… We hear the frustrations out there on the streets; over 5 million people according to the latest numbers don’t have anything to eat.”

A recently published report by the U.N. said Haiti’s worsening macroeconomic conditions, sociopolitical instability and reduced agricultural production will exacerbate the alarming lack of food. In addition, reduced access to humanitarian assistance, due to a shortfall in funding and increasing costs of delivery resulting from high prices of fuel and goods, poses further challenges.

While Wednesday’s meeting will not be about the civil unrest, the meeting is certainly timely given the ongoing political stalemate and security challenges.

“I expect political dialogue to come up; I expect the security situation to come up. The current crisis, of course. It’s very hard to ignore the news when you’re having a meeting,” Carrière said. “The aim is to have a high-level discussion on how to better accompany Haiti.”

For Canada, that priority is the Haitian police, which found itself stretched as gangs took to the streets last week and attempted to block fuel delivery at stations amid the chaos.

“It’s a very complicated and fluid security situation. I have the utmost respect for the [police] and the work they are doing,” Carrière said. “What’s missing is the political actors getting together and also doing the best they can to come to an inclusive accord that doesn’t leave anybody behind and puts the country back on the right track.”

This year alone, Canada has provided $42 million Canadian to support the Haitian police, including $10 million to a U.N.-controlled fund. The fund, however, is still millions of dollars short for money to equip the police and fund a container inspection project at the country’s seaports to be run by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

“All we want is for other countries to step up,” Carrière said.

That’s where Friday’s donor meeting comes in. Canada is co-hosting the meeting with the United States, and it will be heavily focused on raising contributions for the U.N. fund and the container project to tighten scrutiny at the country’s ports, which the interim government has made a priority.

Recent reforms at the ports to recapture at least $600 million in lost revenue have led to an increase in government income of about 20%, but it’s also fueling the protests. Those involved in a flourishing fuel black market as well as contraband and illegal arms imports are suspected of stoking the ongoing violence.

On Monday, the Biden administration’s top aide on Latin America and the Caribbean, Juan Gonzalez, said that economic interests are financing the violent civil unrest.

Carrière agrees with the assessment that some of the protests are being financed by economic interests. “I think one can’t dismiss the popular malcontent but one has to be mindful also of the powerful economic interests in this country.”

Haiti advocates said that while the security issues and the political crisis will understandably be the focus of the Haiti discussions at the General Assembly, Canada and others in the international community should also keep development assistance high on the agenda.

Analytical work undertaken at the Science of Implementation Initiative, which is the successor to Dr. Paul Farmer’s United Nations Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General, found that donors have failed to deliver promised development aid to Haiti over the years and not kept their promise about behaving differently in distributing that aid.

“The international community has consistently sidestepped public institutions in Haiti, effectively perpetuating the weakness of the one stakeholder that is both accountable to the Haitian people and responsible for the country’s development. After decades of weakening Haitian institutions, the current crisis should come as no surprise,” the group said.

The group urged donors to break “the business-as-usual approach and honor their commitments to the aid effectiveness agenda by accompanying their Haitian colleagues to meet the critical needs of their country.”

McClatchy Senior White House Correspondent Michael Wilner contributed to this report.